Philosophy Unit 3 Behaviourism

Although analytical behaviourism is not very plausible, there are three other behaviourist thesis that have a life in them yet:

Behaviour-as-necessary

Necessarily, anything that has no physical behavioural dispositions of a certain kind and complexity doesn't have a mental life

Behaviour-as-sufficient

Necessarily, anything that has physical behavioural dispositions of a certain kind and complexity has a mental life.

Supervenient behaviourism

In the jargon, psychological facts "supervene" on physical behavioural dispositions: If any two possible creatures x and y differs with respect to types of mental states, then they differ with respect to types of behavioural dispositions.

Anti - Behaviourism

One's behaviour may not tally with one's mental states, so how can they be one and the same thing? The behaviourist may respond in terms of subjunctive conditions: X would Y if Z.

However, such accounts contain ineliminable mentalistic terminology such as belief and desire, so the behaviouristic analysis is not exhaustive; we are left with an irreducible mentalistic component.

Comments

another weakness of behaviourism which is quite easy to remember is actors and stoics as they show different behaviour to what they are actually feeling so for these typical people. the bhavouirst approach fails.